Do You Work Hard, or Do You COMPETE?
Sunday, 04 February 2024
“But coach, I am working hard out there,” many of us have heard often as a coach. “Yes Dad/Mom, I am trying my best” sounds familiar to many a parent. We all want our athletes to work hard and apply themselves in training and games. But is something more needed to truly excel? Is working
- Published in Basketball, Mental Toughness, Team Culture
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2023 Most Important Books of the Year
Tuesday, 28 November 2023
It’s that time of year for us to share our favorite, most important books of 2023. We were able to interview some amazing authors this year, and read so, so many good books, but a few books really stood out to us as exceptional. Many of these books have been impactful on both a personal
- Published in Book reviews
The Storm Has Its Purpose
Thursday, 16 November 2023
The other day I was on a live webinar with a couple of dozen parents of young athletes, almost all moms. They were there to gain some insight into how they could best support their children on the sporting journey across a variety of sports. I was asked a question that is a very common
- Published in Adversity, Family Values, Mental Toughness, Parenting
Don’t Be a Starving Baker
Wednesday, 08 November 2023
Have you ever heard the parable of the starving baker? Once upon a time, there was a baker renowned for his delightful pastries and delicious breads who took great pride in feeding his community. As the town’s population grew, so did the demand for his baked goods. The baker, determined meet this need, started working harder. He started skipping his own meals.
- Published in Coaching, mental health
Youth Sports is a Journey (And We Have Lots to Be Grateful For)
Wednesday, 11 October 2023
This week I wanted to share with you some thoughts I recently sent to my local youth soccer club. I wrote these as I was working in the Middle East, visiting a series of international schools and doing coach, parent and leadership education in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Kuwait. It was a fascinating trip, as I learned
- Published in Adversity, High School Sports, Parenting
“Winning’s the Great Deodorant” (But That is Not Always a Good Thing)
Tuesday, 05 September 2023
Legendary NFL coach John Madden was once asked about the importance of winning in professional football. His answer is one of my favorite quotes: “I’ve always said winning’s the great deodorant, and conversely, when you have a bad record, everything stinks, and everything starts to unravel, and everything falls apart.” I love this quote because
- Published in Coaching, High School Sports, Parenting
Great Athletes Have a Humble Heart
Tuesday, 06 June 2023
(This week we wanted to share another chapter from the leadership section of our new book The Champion Teammate: Timeless lessons to Connect, Compete and Lead in Sports and Life. This chapter is about humility, and shares some great stories of legendary athletes who were so incredibly humble and willing to share any accolades that
- Published in Book reviews, Gratitude, Leadership
Getting Better vs. Getting Seen: The Conundrum That Derails Many Promising Young Athletes
Tuesday, 16 May 2023
“Thanks Coach, we had an amazing time in this program, but you just don’t do enough showcases and we are going to miss getting seen by college coaches. We will be joining Club X.” “But isn’t your daughter still in middle school?” “Yes, but they say if we don’t join now we won’t be able
- Published in College Recruiting, Parenting
Be a Thermostat, not a Thermometer: Sample Chapter from our New Book “The Champion Teammate”
Tuesday, 02 May 2023
(Jerry and John are so excited to announce the upcoming release of our new book The Champion Teammate: Timeless Lessons to Connect, Compete and Lead in Sports in Life. Throughout our lives, we will be part of many teams. From sports teams to community groups to our dining room table, our lives are filled with
- Published in Coaching, Leadership, Team Culture
Is FOMO Ruining Youth Sports?
Tuesday, 17 January 2023
(Yesterday I had the opportunity to present to a group of orthopedics, physical therapists, athletic trainers and coaches on FOMO: Fear of Missing Out, and why I think it is driving early specialization, burnout and dropout for our young athletes. I figured it was a good excuse to share an old blog of ours on
- Published in Coaching, Mindset, Parenting, Problems in Youth Sports
How Adults Take the Joy Out of Sports (And How We Can Fix It)
Tuesday, 03 January 2023
We have all seen it. I was recently watching a 12-year-old boys soccer game, and I saw it again. Like a deer in the headlights, the left defender on the blue team was seemingly stranded on the field and unsure where to go or what to do. He turned to one sideline, where his coach
- Published in Coaching, Long Term Athlete Development, Problems in Youth Sports
How Labeling Young Athletes ‘Talented’ Limits Athletic Achievement (And Why We Should Ignore It)
Tuesday, 13 December 2022
The word “talent” gets thrown around quite often in youth sports circles, but what exactly does it mean? And do we really know what talent looks like, what its components are, how to properly develop it, and how labeling kids talented at a young age can actually limit their achievement? These are the questions we
- Published in Talent Development
Our 2022 Books of the Year: And the Winner is DO HARD THINGS by Steve Magness
Tuesday, 06 December 2022
Every year for 10 years we have released our favorite books of the year, and this year we had an amazing assortment of books that crossed our path. We are so blessed that all of these authors also took the time to join us on the Way of Champions Podcast so you can listen to
- Published in Book reviews
Confidence CANNOT be Given; it Has to be EARNED!
Tuesday, 20 September 2022
Don’t we all wish our children were more confident? Don’t we wish there was a magic confidence pill, or some special words that we could say to our children that would have them step into the arena bursting with the belief that they could accomplish any task? And is there anything more painful than to
- Published in Confidence
Creating the Ideal Learning Environment
Thursday, 01 September 2022
I have been on the road the last few weeks, visiting with some high performance teams and coaches across numerous sports from New York to Belgium to Vermont and finally, Colorado. In that time, regardless of whether these coaches were working with adults or children, similar questions kept popping up. “What does a great learning
- Published in Coaching, Leadership, Talent Development
Timeout! The Importance of Downtime for Youth Sports Families
Thursday, 04 August 2022
“But dad, we have so much going on!” “Do we have to go mom? I want to play in another tournament?” “Will we miss out if we don’t do the extra private training?” Have you heard these types of sentiments before from your spouse or your children? I know I have. The past few weeks
- Published in Family Values
Is Your Child’s Youth Sports Experience Transactional or Transformational?
Tuesday, 12 July 2022
This week I am headed to Chicago to speak at a youth sports conference called Rev, for clients of one of our partners, the web development and online registration organization Sprocket Sports. I have been tasked with moderating a panel called “The Secret Sauce of Taking Your Club from Transactional to Transformational,” and I am
- Published in Problems in Youth Sports, Soccer, Team Culture
Confidence is a Feeling, Competence is a Behavior
Tuesday, 24 May 2022
We have all seen the interview many times. The star athlete comes off the field or court, and the first question the interviewer asks is “You were looking really confident out there today, what was your secret?” We might even say the same thing to our own young athletes that we coach and mentor: “Wow,
- Published in Confidence, sport psychology, Sports Parenting
Don’t Win the Race to the Bottom During Tryout Season
Wednesday, 04 May 2022
“My kid is so stressed, she is so worried she won’t be able to play with her friends anymore,” a mom recently wrote us. “We have friends who tell us their daughter is physically ill with worry. She is 10!” Sound familiar anyone? It is the annual rite of passage we call tryouts in youth
- Published in Tryouts
Can You Over-Sample in Youth Sports?
Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Every month we get interesting emails and messages from our Changing the Game family, and once in a while we get one that is worth throwing to the community. We got an email from a set of parents, both former NCAA Division I athletes, with three young children highly involved in sports. As avid readers
- Published in Specialization, Sports Parenting, Talent Development
Celebrating the Life of a True Coaching Mentor
Tuesday, 11 January 2022
Teenage girls. If you have ever coached a group of teenage girls, you know how incredibly wonderful they can be. Happy, fun, so much love and bonding, matching headbands, energy and passion. You also know that they are coming into their own as young women. They start to form cliques. Jealousy may arise if one
- Published in Adversity, Coaching, mentorship
Our 2021 Books of the Year
Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Well, as 2021 rolls into December it is that time of year again, time to highlight our favorite new books of 2021. This has certainly been a year for reading and reflection, and our sports world continues to be turned upside down by the ongoing pandemic. Many coaches, parents, and youth sports advocates have invested
- Published in Book reviews
The One Sentence That Can Change an Athlete’s Life
Tuesday, 26 October 2021
As coaches, sometimes we wish we had a magic power, a word or phrase that could get an athlete to focus, commit, and excel. Yes, we must invest and connect with them. Yes, it takes time to build trust and to build a relationship that can bear the burden of truth. As author Dan Coyle
- Published in Coaching
How to Help Your Athletes Build Great Habits and Break the Bad Ones
Tuesday, 21 September 2021
“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. They are the foundation of mastery.” – James Clear “I wish my kid would practice more on his own,” said one mom to me at a recent talk. “He could be so much better if he applied himself.” “I hear you,” said her friend. “If he spent as
How to Be a Great Teammate
Tuesday, 04 May 2021
In my daily conversations with coaches of every level, from grassroots to the professional ranks, we often talk about a topic that is near and dear to our hearts: what makes someone a valuable member of the team. What are the qualities that make an athlete recruitable? Is it speed? Strength? Skill? Some combination of
- Published in Leadership, Team Culture
Choosing the Hard Right in Youth Sports
Wednesday, 20 January 2021
As many long time listeners and readers know, I am a graduate of Fordham University in New York City. This past Monday, on the occasion of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, one of my former teachers and current university president Father Joseph McShane sent a letter to alumni about courage. I thought it was worth
Approaching 2021 with Grace, Patience and Kindness
Monday, 04 January 2021
As we wind down the year 2020, a year in which Dictionary.com named the word “unprecedented” as its word of the year, I have been using some holiday downtime to think about 2021, and how to improve upon the challenges of the past 9 months. And the word I keep coming upon is “grace.” I
- Published in Coaching, Motivation, Sports Parenting
Our 2020 Books of the Year
Monday, 30 November 2020
It is that time of year again, when we highlight our favorite books of the past year. This year we are a bit “coach-centric” in our list but we all have coaches in our lives that I am confident would benefit from one of these books. And if you are interested, please click here to
- Published in Book reviews
Two Magic Words
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
“What were you doing out there?” screamed an angry dad. “I told you to shoot!” yelled the coach to the shell shocked young boy who just passed to his teammate instead of fulfilling the coaches wishes. “He doesn’t know what he is doing” says a third parent, shaking his head as the attack falters and
Youth Sports is a Journey, Not a Destination
Monday, 14 September 2020
COVID. Demonstrations and riots. Divisive politics. Home schooling. Wildfires. Smoke. As a coach for 30 years, and a parent for nearly 15 of those years, I am probably like most of you in that I cannot remember a crazier, more stressful, anxiety inducing year than 2020. It seems every time we take one step forward, we
- Published in Parenting